If you’re still using a smartphone stuck on Android 10 and plug it into your car with a cable, you may have seen an unsettling message: «Phone will no longer be supported». Android Auto is warning that it will soon stop working because the phone can’t be updated to the required version of Android.
Google hasn’t announced anything official. But the warnings, reported by several users, suggest that the minimum requirement is about to rise to Android 11.
What is happening
The warnings appear when the phone connects to the car over USB. They have been reported by owners of models whose last major update was Android 10: the Samsung Galaxy Note 9, Galaxy S9 and Sony Xperia XZ2 Compact.
The message says the phone “will no longer be supported” and that the app will stop working because it isn’t possible to move to the version of Android it needs. There is no cut-off date, though.
What the documentation says
Google’s support page still lists Android 9 Pie as the minimum requirement for wired Android Auto. For a wireless connection, you generally need Android 11 or later. So on paper, a phone running Android 10 is still compatible with the cable.
The reports suggest things are about to change. The developers of the Open Headunit project have also noticed that recent versions of Android Auto have switched off some automatic wireless projection features on Android 10.
It wouldn’t be the first time
Google has raised the bar before. In 2022 it dropped support for Android 8 Oreo and earlier. In 2024 the minimum became Android 9 Pie: anyone still on Android 8 began to see the message «This phone no longer supports Android Auto».
At the time, 9to5Google calculated that only 5.8% of active Android devices were still running Android 8.0 (May 2024 figures), with phones seven or eight years old that had long gone without security updates. A move to Android 11 would follow the same pattern.
What you can do
For now there’s nothing you can do with certainty, because there is no deadline. There are, however, a few useful checks:
- check your Android version under Settings > About phone;
- if you have Android 10, see whether an update to Android 11 or later exists for your model;
- if it doesn’t, the alternatives are a custom ROM (with all the risks that entails) or a newer phone;
- if your car has Android Auto built in, try a wired connection with a second, newer phone, so you know whether the problem lies with the car or the device.
What we think
The cut would be consistent with Google’s policy: roughly every two years, a generation of Android falls outside the supported range. The Galaxy S9 and Note 9 are more than eight years old, and the security of a phone with no patches is a bigger problem than the navigation app.
Still, many people use their old smartphone precisely as a “car device”, because it works and costs nothing. For them, the end of support would mean spending a few tens of euros on a newer used phone. It’s a modest cost, but it’s better to know about it before you find yourself with no navigation in the middle of a trip.
We’re waiting for an official statement from Google: until it arrives, we’re treating all this as a strong but unconfirmed signal. On the connected-driving front, we’ve also covered the latest Google Maps changes on Android Auto.
Written by the SpazioiTech newsroom with the help of AI tools, from facts verified across at least two independent outlets, and checked before publication. Spotted a mistake? Tell us.
Translated from the Italian original. Read in Italian
